Wenger talar om Nigeria-turnén
Det pratas Nigeria-brev. Man får ett litet brev att man skall skänka 200 000 till en killes kusins mammas hund, så får man tillgångar som en gammal kung i Nigeria har haft. Fantastiskt. Kanske har Wenger lurats på samma sätt. Vad vet jag? Fakta är i alla fall att Gunners åker till Abuja i Nigeria i början av Augusti för att spela en träningsmatch och i en intervju i Nigerias tidning "Sunday Vanguard", så beskriver Wenger sina mål med resan och vad han tycker om Nigeria.
Nwankwu Kanu är den ende nigerian som spelat för Gunners och Wenger menar att det var en exceptionellt bra spelare. Klok, trevlig, bra moral och makalöst teknisk."I think he was very great in representing Nigeria. He was a player that everybody loved here, as well as a man everybody loved here in England.
He never complained, you could kick him from everywhere, and he would never say a word, and he was very brave."
Idag, menar fransmannen, kommer det för lite bra spelare från Nigeria. Landet har missat i utvecklingen av sina ungdomar. " I think Nigeria has a job to do with the youths, to rebuild the system.From the explanation I got, every province is different in terms of their system, but there is no global system to educate young players. It is vital to me that they educate the young people...They do not produce any good players, not enough anymore.".
Han menar att denna inledande matchen mellan Arsenal och Nigeria XI i Abuja kan vara en start för ett nytt samarbete mellan Arsenal och afrikansk forboll och det var en av orsakerna till att man besöker Nigeria. Intresset på kontinenten är makalöst stort. Han såg det när han besökte Sydafrika under Vm2010. Osannolikt mycket folk överallt håller på Gunners. Kenya var helt otroligt, menade Wenger. Men för att spelarna skall komma fram så handlar mycket om utveckling. "I believe that there again, when you think about potentially developing players, it is first to have the coaches.
So chronologically, you have to educate people to coach, and then create schools where you can develop the players.To make it as simple as possible, football is first a technical sport. It is not natural to use your feet to do something. Your feet are made to walk through the street, not necessarily to play football.
So you have first to transform someone into a football player, and that is between ages 5 and 12 years old. When you come at 14, it is too late. That is why you have to educate people to teach the basics of our sport between five and 12. The kind of quality the coaches need is to know what you can do to develop people, that is the exercises that you can give, and as well to teach him not to make basic mistakes.
There are two things in our job that can be very dangerous. One, not to develop the potential of a person, the other is to disturb the potential of a person by making him do the wrong things. Sometimes, we can as well do that.".
Jag noterar också att Malta Guinness har utsetts av Arsenal Nigeria Tour Drink. Intressant.
